title: Use of infrared ocular thermography to assess physiological conditions of pigs prior to slaughter and predict pork quality variation.
abstract: Infrared thermography (IRT) body temperature readings were taken in the ocular region of 258 pigs immediately before slaughter. Levels of lactate were measured in blood taken in the restrainer. Meat quality was assessed in the longissimus dorsi (LD), semimembranosus (SM), and adductor muscles. Ocular IRT (IROT) temperature was correlated with blood lactate levels (r=0.20; P=0.001), with pH taken 1hour postmortem (pH1: r=-0.18; P=0.03) and drip loss (r=0.20; P=0.02) in the LD muscle, and with pH1 in the SM muscle (r=-0.20; P=0.02). Potentially, IROT may be a useful tool to assess the physiological conditions of pigs at slaughter and predict the variation of important meat quality traits. However, the magnitude of the correlations is rather low, so a further development of image capture technique and further studies under more variable preslaughter conditions ensuring a larger pork quality variation are needed.
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Dairy and Swine Research and Development Centre, Sherbrooke, QC J1M 0C8, Canada.
authors.forename: Angela V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Weschenfelder
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Saucier
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Maldague
authors.forename: Luiene M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Rocha
authors.forename: Allan L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Schaefer
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Faucitano
mesh_terms: D000003:Abattoirs; D000818:Animals; D001831:Body Temperature; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000097:blood*; D008460:Meat / Q000032:analysis* / Q000592:standards; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013552:Swine; D013817:Thermography / Q000379:methods*; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D019344:Lactic Acid
keywords: Animal welfare; Heat stress; Infrared thermography; Meat quality; Pig